Something that no on has mentioned is that using speaker drivers from production speakers means that you do not have the technical data on them.
You would be much better going with new drivers which have published technical details.

Something that no on has mentioned is that using speaker drivers from production speakers means that you do not have the technical data on them.
You would be much better going with new drivers which have published technical details.

Do a tour of solen.ca or parts-express to get things moving.

If someone were going to spend the man hours and money to try to replicate a project as ambitious as the nautilus in any sort of reasonable fashion, they wouldn't care about published/manufacture provided data. They would be taking measurements in their application and fine tuning them from those results. Driver selection would be based on reliable 3rd party or in house distortion/response testing.

If someone were going to spend the man hours and money to try to replicate a project as ambitious as the nautilus in any sort of reasonable fashion, they wouldn't care about published/manufacture provided data. They would be taking measurements in their application and fine tuning them from those results. Driver selection would be based on reliable 3rd party or in house distortion/response testing.

You really don't think they'd start with the technical data?
Would they just go get one of every driver that looks nice and then test them all?

In any regard, third party testing etc.. has nothing to do with this thread, the op's idea was to buy some unknown B&W drivers and use them with no data or testing.

Nice project...BUT.
All good and proper sounding speakers have some sort of theoretical background. It is waist of time and money just to try clone the shape of nautilus and expect good sound. It might sound ok but it would be just good luck. Do you imagine how much just material will cost and how many hours of hard work and which kind of tools you will need? And skills of course.
I'm not trying to be negative but please listen to the guys and try to make some calculations first......The guys here have a lot of experience and are just trying to help. Once again. It would be waist of money and time just to try your good luck.
Btw how are original nautilus speakers stuffed? And which kind of material they use? Is it important? Does it somehow affect to the sound?
Maybe not. Maybe just colour and glossy finish is important. I think that black could sound nice. Maybe black -matt....sorry just kidding.
So once again listen to the guys and at least try to make some calculations....and search for some theory...
Very bhttp://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/Speakers/Home_Audio/Nautilus/Technologies.htmlest regards

From my long newbie career , I know that in a TL the mass of air couples to the woofer's membrane under certain frequencies ( i.e. bass ) .
Another thing , is the efficiency of the driver : by working together with a dome midrange ,I guess the big woofer has traded efficiency for extension ( BW ) , and that's what the PR is doing there ,to extend a little bit the bass .

not really touched on sufficiently I think in this discussion so far is the fact that the drivers in the full blown Nautilus speakers and the enclosures are specifically designed for each other

even though there are arguably many ways for a DIYer to emulate the enclosure construction (some of which have already been highlighted), trying to adapt even a very high quality array of drivers to clone such a unique system design would be a nightmare for an experienced acoustical engineer

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... so, not as easy at it sounds, this letting go thing

You really don't think they'd start with the technical data?
Would they just go get one of every driver that looks nice and then test them all?

The technical data provided by most manufacturers of drivers is rarely complete enough to match up to the scope of such a project. It would not be unusual or unexpected for many drivers to be purchased for testing. Obviously, the use of 3rd party tests that have already been conducted could help narrow down an initial selection of drivers for contention.

You seem to want to infer from my original post, that I intended to convey that one should semi-blindly just purchase a bunch of drivers. Nope.